Touch of Death (1988) poster
1988 · horror · cannibal · black-comedy

Touch of Death

Directed by Lucio Fulci1h 26m1988
  • heavy
  • intense
  • bleak
  • cold

The financially strained and increasingly desperate, Lester Parsons concocts a brilliant get-rich-quick scheme; cruise the lonely hearts ads for rich women to fleece. Too bad then, that Lester’s also a psychotic cannibal who enjoys mutilating these lovelorn souls, via his trusty chainsaw, and using their flesh for his dinner. When a copycat killer threatens to bring him down, Lester must do all he can to prevent this new killer’s sloppy work from ruining them both.

Our read · Touch of Death (1988) reads as a heavy, steady, inventive horror · cannibal · black-comedy entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Cast
Brett HalseyZora KerovaAl CliverSacha DarwinRia De Simone
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The shape of Touch of Death

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Nearest by DNA

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Geometric closeness in the twelve-axis space — pure DNA distance, not “people also liked.” Distance numbers are listed under each title for sceners who like to know the maths.

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